Monday, May 19, 2014

[Note from 12 June] I wrote this micro-post in a fit of bewilderment at just how loud the school hallways can get in the middle and high schools. Kids will be kids, of course, but the laissez-faire nature of passing time contrasts greatly with the "sit down and be quiet" nature of classroom expectations. It's either on or it's off; it's hot or it's cold...

Tangent: In times like this I think back to middle and high school in suburban Wisconsin. We were as loud back then? Maybe so. Over a decade's passed, so maybe the memories have grown muddled. But then, we had five minutes to change classes and the Koreans have ten. We were too pressed for time to get wild. Whether or not that was a good thing, I don't know. I remember middle and high school as a time when we had to hurry to class, lest we suffer the consequences. The teachers began class at the sound of the bell. Yet over in Korea, the kids have ten minutes plus however long it takes for the teacher to walk from the teacher's room to the classroom. Classes begin when the teacher walks into the room in Korea. This means that the students can enjoy as much as 13 minutes between classes. Come to think of it, maybe I'd have jumped for joy if I was in the same situation. It's hard to say. When in Rome...

Sunday, May 18, 2014

It's no secret that I enjoy walking; I do a lot of it here since everything is close in town. Last weekend, I spent most of an afternoon walking to Gimhwa and back via the walking paths along the Wasu Stream. The sun shone brilliantly and the weather was about as good as spring gets before the summer rains come.

As mentioned before, Cheorwon County sits on a Korean War battleground. It's home to Sniper's Ridge, in fact. See the beautiful monument below:

The stairway to the top, with the flowers in full spring bloom.

The monument

A wider view of the monument. Not pictured: The other cannon.

Pastoral Gimhwa, the town just north of Wasu.

Just north of where the Wasu Stream meets the Hwa River. I stopped here to eat a roll of a kimbap.

Above: Two bunkers built into the earth near the monument. Bunkers are everywhere here. The soldiers probably use the bunkers when they have drills.